Honk If You Need Mercy!
This week’s guest writer is Eden Duncan Gilbreath, a dear friend whose creativity and faith shine through everything she does. Eden is a fine artist and writer who has spent years inspiring, entertaining, and informing people—whether through her paintings, teaching, or words on the page. What stands out most is her genuine heart and desire to reflect God’s goodness in everyday life. In our series, The Keys to Happiness, Eden shares the fifth key— “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”
By Eden Duncan Gilbreath
Honk! We honk as we are cut off in traffic. Tempers flare as traffic backs up. Cars jut in and out of lanes. Maybe there are gestures thrown. The sea of cars seems endless, and something exists right on the other side of the back-up of vehicles .. it’s the rest of your life. And it feels at times we won’t get there. Ever.
What is missing in this scenario is mercy. Sweet, sweet unmerited forgiveness. But aren’t we due this bit of aggravation, this bit of rage? Well, are we?
I am the mom of two young adults. I think of how nerve wracking it was for my husband and myself as they learned to drive. So many perils but not the least of these are other drivers. I make mistakes in traffic after driving for decades. Don’t you? What if mercy could not be found for my new drivers?
I understand the stickers that say, “New Driver.” Those stickers are asking for mercy, because new drivers are going to make more mistakes. Those stickers make a lot of sense to me.
What if we all wore a sticker that said, “Mercy please, I am new.” Because aren’t we all relatively new? Our span on earth whether a few years or over one hundred is a short time compared to eternity.
In Mathew chapter five of the Holy Bible, we read of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount. In chapter 5 verse 7, Jesus says, “Blessed [content, sheltered by God’s promises] are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” (Amplified version)
For those in Christ, that is, those who have trusted Christ as Savior, we know that nothing we do can earn the favor of God – it is His mercy and His grace that allows us to claim his righteousness.
It’s His mercy that allows us to offer mercy to others. If we in our filthy sin have been forgiven, can we not offer mercy for minor offenses? And truly, what is at the heart of our offense? Our self-worth.
Whether we struggle with insecurity or we have an inflated sense of self, we find our lives, our schedules and our goals of paramount importance. It’s our misplaced importance and incorrect identity that is harmed in the check-out line, by a rude server, by the traffic backing up. And the result is we don’t have the capacity to offer mercy.
If we had a true understanding, or even an inkling of the depth of our depravity, the weight of our sin, then we could more clearly appreciate the miraculous, life-giving, all-consuming gift of the mercy and grace of God.
Mercy is a gift, a gift that we can share with others and when it is shared, it is returned. If we understood that all people are made in the image of God, and that those that are His children are forgiven of so much and that our identity is in Christ alone then surely, we could show mercy?
The truth is it takes more than knowing our identity, and it takes more than an inkling of understanding of the weight of forgiveness that we are offered through Jesus. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit.
We will never be able to offer the supernatural power of mercy to others without the power of the Holy Spirit which enables us to love without condition, to see past flaws and sin and to offer mercy in every situation. We partner with the Spirit to crucify the flesh and offer the power of forgiveness, the power of mercy.
Sometimes we think the fruit of the Spirit is a checklist to strive for. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. It’s not a checklist; it's the fruit of the believer when submitted to Christ.
Galatians 5:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature together with its passions and appetites.
25 If we [claim to] live by the [Holy] Spirit, we must also walk by the Spirit [with personal integrity, godly character, and moral courage—our conduct empowered by the Holy Spirit]. 26 We must not become conceited, challenging or provoking one another, envying one another.
Eden has always loved to draw and to write. With degrees in fine arts and English, she explored both passions as a graphic designer, painter, teacher, and writer. She once owned her own design studio, enjoyed a solo art exhibit, and later began writing for her local paper—something she first did decades earlier to promote the arts. She also helped to create a drawing group that has thrived for more than twenty years and recently chaired a national art show. Yet Eden counts her greatest joy as being a child of God, blessed with family, friends, and the call to love people well.